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Leveling 65-85

1). Dunland==> Great River ===> Rohan? Is that the typical progression now assuming no skirmishes, no instances, and no picking blueberries with Henry Fonda?

2). If I understand correctly, the level of quests in Enedwaith was dropped approx. 5 levels, but the next volume of the epic is still 65-70, and occurs exclusively there, with Dunland's part of the epic starting at 70? If so, how utterly pedantic is that??

3). This is the big one. As far as class traits, I'm doing 5 lead the charge/2 hands of healing. I'm pretty set on Strength from Within and Now for Wrath, but I have no firm decision on the red traits...they all seem teriffic. At this point I'd like to ask the community which of the 5 will 1). be best for kill speed, which is just plain ridiculous as it is, and 2). make the most sense for solo leveling from 65-85. I realize a lot of you have already started to type "it depends on whether you're using archer/herald or standard", and honestly I don't really have a preference, because I don't see a DPS increase with one of the other. The utility the herald offers is nice to be sure (off-tanking mostly), but I often find myself getting tired of how utterly stupid the AI is, and use a standard instead (the same is true with heralds as well). It might be easier to ask which of the lead the charge traits are LEAST necessary to maintain nearly-tolerable leveling speed. I kinda cast Blade of Elendil a lot, so I've currently got Adherent of Elendil traited. I untraited Captain's Valour to do so. I haven't even earned Precise Ally yet, so I have never really seen an archer/herald at maximum potential. What are you guys' thoughts?

Please don't misunderstand me; I'm not all about getting to 85 as quickly as possible. But I AM all for getting to 85 before the next freaking expansion. And I do get a little tired of spending 45 seconds defeating a signature mob sometimes. I'll never understand why it's accepted how poor captain DPS is prior to level cap (and if it sucks at end-game, maybe you shouldn't tell me that, eh? :P).

I would say thatcalling that the typical progression is even something of an understatement. The game is set-up to drive you in that direction. That is the order in which they were introduced; and the epic line will guide you through it that way.

The Enedwaith book quests are all level 65 and Dunland starts at that level as well. Might be 66, can't remember. Great River does the same thing, the area is 70-75 and the book quests are all 75, though most of the Great River ones can be done at a lower level easier since the mob levels are lower than the quest levels for the most part.

Starting with Dunland (and a bit in Enedwaith) the epic book starts to intertwine with the zone quests pretty heavily.... to the point where it basically becomes mandatory in Wildermoore (new zone) if you want the full picture of what's really going on.

So how much you value clarity of the epic books really determines how much you want to play through the zone.

Maley Oakensage, Captain of Elendilmir

Alas Elendilmir, may you *jingle jangle* forever in the Forgotten West

Even though I am not yet at 65 (but close) I will give my take on this as well as some is anyway not really cappy related.

Originally Posted by psalm8818

1). Dunland==> Great River ===> Rohan? Is that the typical progression now assuming no skirmishes, no instances, and no picking blueberries with Henry Fonda?

You can easily level to 75 in Dunland/Gap of Rohan, Nan Curunir alone and then immediately go to Rohan.
Since they relevelled GR you can just choose to hop into GR as well from 70-72 onwards.

2). If I understand correctly, the level of quests in Enedwaith was dropped approx. 5 levels, but the next volume of the epic is still 65-70, and occurs exclusively there, with Dunland's part of the epic starting at 70? If so, how utterly pedantic is that??

The problem is that the zones (Endedwaith and GR) were once all level cap zones (i.e. 65 and 75) but then with the release of a new expansion got relevelled (60-65, 70-75(?)).
However the epics never got relevelled and are at 65 and 75 respectively.

3). This is the big one. As far as class traits, I'm doing 5 lead the charge/2 hands of healing. I'm pretty set on Strength from Within and Now for Wrath, but I have no firm decision on the red traits...they all seem teriffic. At this point I'd like to ask the community which of the 5 will 1). be best for kill speed, which is just plain ridiculous as it is, and 2). make the most sense for solo leveling from 65-85.

I used to run standard in my 40ies. since i have the oathie archer I use it. This means I also run 5 red 2 blue.

I'd say the staples for red are Renewed Voice and Expert Attacks.
I also use Battle Master and Adherent of Elendil. The last one is up for grabs depending on personal choice and i will use probably Precise Ally once i have it and if I stick with my oathie archer.

The blues I use are of course Now For Wrath and then I use Relentless Optimism. With maxed RC CD legacy I like that more than MC heals.

Just move to great river as soon as you can and grab a thinglad quest with a personal slave; a female elf warrior to help you. than go to a nearby orc camp with high spawn rate and level to 76. move to rohan, grab a warhorse and go kill orcs near snowbourn in yellow line.

1). Dunland==> Great River ===> Rohan? Is that the typical progression now assuming no skirmishes, no instances, and no picking blueberries with Henry Fonda?

Great River can be skipped, or you can skip the latter half of Dunland, they overlap.

2). If I understand correctly, the level of quests in Enedwaith was dropped approx. 5 levels, but the next volume of the epic is still 65-70, and occurs exclusively there, with Dunland's part of the epic starting at 70? If so, how utterly pedantic is that??

I believe you misunderstand. The books in Enedwaith were never that high, because it was a level capped zone. When they dropped the levels, they changed it from a 65-65 zone into a 60-65 zone. Since the only epics in Enedwaith were either a) there at the 65 cap, or b) added in with Dunland, you'll see very few quests above 65.

Um. Wall of text about traits.

OK, so there are four you should definitely have, two that you can choose between, and two that you shouldn't bother with. I forget the names of the good ones, but I'm sure you'll figure it out from the following text.
The two to never bother with are the two that affect your herald/archer. Don't bother. They suck with or without the traits, and I would highly recommend just using a banner. (You'll notice your own DPS going up significantly with a banner, the extra phys mastery and +5% melee damage really helps.)
The two that I see as "nice to have, but not essential" are Turn of the Tide and whatever one boosts your war banner. I think this is really gonna come down to whether or not you use the war banner all the time or not. If you do, go with that one, if not, throw the stun on Turn of the Tide. (That trait is a bit more important if you're doing instances since you'll get more defeat responses to fire off Routing Cry and more targets to hit with it.)
The other four I would definitely see as essential.

You'll probably want to skip the Great River zone. Its biggest appeal was a rep faction that isn't really worth working on now and an instance that's locked to level 75.

Granted, the GR gear is actually still viable at level 85, but... Level 85 gear is still superior to GR gear, even if not dramatically so, which means that the effort vs. reward ratio for actually unlocking the Great River teal stuff is pretty bad.

Edit: Just to clarify, you should still do the Epics in Great River. But there's no need to actually buy it, IMO.

Last edited by furtim; May 04 2013 at 11:00 AM.

Cainwen Ciaphas, Captain of Crickhollow, HERO OF MIDDLE EARTH!!!
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My opinions are my own!

I start the Isengard stuff as soon as I get 75. Run as much of it as you can then head to Great River for a level or two before starting Rohan. reason is that just by doing the Rohan quests alone, unless you use xp tomes and rested xp, you wil come upa little short of 85 and have to run dailies to finish. When you hit 84 start Hytbold right away since it takes 44 days minimum to complete. Again, unless you are using the resets from the store.

You'll probably want to skip the Great River zone. Its biggest appeal was a rep faction that isn't really worth working on now and an instance that's locked to level 75.

Granted, the GR gear is actually still viable at level 85, but... Level 85 gear is still superior to GR gear, even if not dramatically so, which means that the effort vs. reward ratio for actually unlocking the Great River teal stuff is pretty bad.

Edit: Just to clarify, you should still do the Epics in Great River. But there's no need to actually buy it, IMO.

How well do the area quests mesh with the Epics for Great River?

Maley Oakensage, Captain of Elendilmir

Alas Elendilmir, may you *jingle jangle* forever in the Forgotten West

Not that well really, you can fly through on the epic and not feel like you're missing out as the region's plot is kinda piecemeal. What I'd suggest to get the best feel for it is to clear Thinglad, then move to Stangard until you get sent to the Wailing Hills and back. Once you have completed the Stangard quest chain you can move on as the rest isn't too tied to much. It's a nice prequel for Rohan but nothing you really need.

Couples things, first, Great River is an alternative option for folks who don't purchase Isengard, just like Enedwaith is an alternative region for folks who don't purchase Mirkwood, and Wildermore will be the alternative region for folks who don't purchase Rohan.

So if you are getting Isengard/doing Dunland, Great River is redundant to it. Dunland alone will take you from 65 to 75, the epics through GR will take you above, which is why I try to start Dunland around 62ish.

Similarly, Rohan will take you from 75 to 85, with the Wildermore epics giving even more experience.

Any captain feeling their DPS is low will be shocked when they get their warsteed. Aside from the burst damage of a lore-master, captains are one of the highest mounted DPS classes, not only is the damage huge, it's AoE. If you decrease your attack speed, it's insane, so much so they supposedly reduced it for a skill or two come U11, but it's STILL insane.

Once you get your warsteed, you'll probably never fight on foot again aside from specific instances. All of Rohan and all of Wildermore, even the wooded section in the north is readily done mounted at full speed with Dash on.

I recommend an alternative approach to sprinting at full boar through the woods: do it walking when things get tight: it gives you more control over what the warsteed is doing, and the DPS you can output will be more than sufficient to make things die very quickly..... and it will even allow you to take down swarms of stuff swarming you (provided your gear is good enough that is).

Maley Oakensage, Captain of Elendilmir

Alas Elendilmir, may you *jingle jangle* forever in the Forgotten West